Cynicism replaces gullibility as one rises within totalitarian organizations

Evidence

What had been a demonstrable reaction of mass audiences became an important hierarchical principle for mass organizations. A mixture of gullibility and cynicism is prevalent in all ranks of totalitarian movements, and the higher the rank the more cynicism weighs down gullibility. The essential conviction shared by all ranks, from fellow-traveler to leader, is that politics is a game of cheating and that the “first commandment” of the movement: “The Fuehrer is always right,” is as necessary for the purposes of world politics, i.e., world-wide cheating, as the rules of military discipline are for the purposes of war. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 881

Categorization

• XREF: Previews the leader-lie relationship that recurs in Arendt’s later work; connects to the ‘Fuehrer is always right’ principle as a structuring dogma of the movement.